Circle's Test Wiki:Conflict of Interest Editing
If you have a Conflict of interest (COI) you must disclose it. Failure to disclose COI is a category D offense on in the Penalty System. What conflict of interest is Conflict of interest is when a volunteer writes about themselves or an organisation or person they are closely connected to. Examples of this include: *Creating or editing an article about yourself *Creating or editing an article about a close family member or friend *Being paid to create or edit an article. *Receiving a gift or free or discounted product or service in return for creating or editing an article *Creating or editing an article about an organisation that you are closely linked to. For example, your business *Creating or editing an article about a product, service or artwork you or a family member or friend has created. *Adding content about yourself to an existing article. Why COI must be disclosed Many people underestimate how much they are being influenced by their conflict of interest. Most people will see themselves and their friends and family in a positive way and write articles that reflect this view of them. As well, people often create article about themselves or people they know who are not notable. Furthermore, it would be easy for an organisation to remove negative publicity about themselves. Furthermore, if an volunteer is promoting a company or product, it may be a violation of UK advertising laws. In the UK, there are very strict rules about advertising which mean that there must be clear indications that a peice of content is an advertisement. Expertise and COI Many people with a COI are highly knowledgeable about the subject they write about. A volunteer can be an expert in a subject without having COI. However, you should consider that you expertise could mean you have COI. Ask yourself the following questions about your editing: *Why do I want to write or edit this article? If you are simply interested in the topic, you most likely do not have COI. However, if you are writing or editing the article to remove negative content about a friend, get the word out about yourself or your business or to reveal your role in exposing your former employer's wrongdoing, you may have COI. If you are being paid to write or edit the article, you definitely have a COI. *How do I know about the subject? If you have studied the subject at school, college or university, or are reading books, newspaper and journal articles to learn about the subject, you most likely do not have COI. However, if most of your knowledge about the subject comes from personal involvement with the subject, you may have COI. Fixing Innaccurate information about yourself or your organisation If an article about you or your organisation contains factual inaccuracies, please ask the Assisstance and Enforcement board to change it for you. Information with no source or with an unreliable source may be removed on request of no reliable source for the information can be found. Note that Circle's Test Wiki is not obliged to change material if there is a reliable source demonstrating that information is factually accurate. Impersonnation If someone has been pretending to be you and has asked for content to be changed, you can create an account and ask for it to be changed. An email address will soon be created to deal with this issue. Category:CTW Policy